How do you deal with Nob Bikers?

I've played Nob bikers twice now and I must say, they are ridiculously tough. Granted, I used marines the 1st time and nids the 2nd. Next time I will be using my so-far-undefeated guards on him, but I am afraid that it could very easily be my first loss with them.

He's got 2 squads of nob bikers, all of them equipped differently, and 2 warbosses on bikes. Just those 2 units are already 1400+ pt. He then adds 2 units of gretchins to get it to 1500pts. That's 4 scoring units he's got.

His bikers, with their 24" turboboost, is so freakin fast its not even funny. I only have 1 turn to shoot him because by turn 2, he'll be assaulting me and when he turboboosts, he gets 3+ cover. If I go first, he can elect to keep his units in reserve so I have nothing to shoot. Then when they come in, it's 24" turboboost and next turn, 12" + 6" assault. I can't avoid him.

For those not familiar with nob bikers, they are probably the toughest squads in all of 40k - 2 wounds apiece, T5, 5+Inv/4+Armor/3+Cover, Feel No Pain, and the ability to absorb up to 10 wounds without losing a single biker.

Battlecannons and other Ordnance are good too. Doesn't deny the cover save, but denies the FNP and instant kills the 2W greenies. Plasma spam also still wounds on 2s and denies the FNP, or melta to heap instant death on top of that too, using CCS to make them reroll that cover save in both cases of course.

I really can't see it being that much an issue unless your own model restriction is part of the problem. Would be easier to help formulate a plan if we knew what you're fighting with.

If you wanna go up against Fast armies, use the good ol' tactic of counter-attacking. Use a shield blob of infantry to soak up their first assault and use the opportunity to lay in some blast templates once the Ork Nob bikers are done. So, a good formation would be 2 Inf Squads blobbed in front of 2 Demolishers with possible waves standing behind to tarpit even more.

Got to agree with InqAffe on that one.
Bane hounds are a good detterant to everything. You can do some real mess to a squad with 3 of those. None of those saves bar FNP for him. With Autohits and 2+ to would you should be alright and inflicting so many wounds you'll get through the FNP. 3 of those is only 390pts. They can have Heavy Flamers too and fire both when they move 12".

Another Tank you've got is the Hydra. Ok he still gets FNP, but they'll ignore turbo boosting and his armour. A squadron of 3 Hydras is no points at all and you can fit them into a balenced list.

Also spamming things like Melta and Ordinance to instant kill him. The shear amount of stuff you can throw at him will take him down eventually.

When all your shooting is done, Charge a squad of conscripts in there with a Commi Lord nearby (NOT in the squad) to hold them up for his turn. Then you can Burn him again.

While all thats going on, 2 Snetinels with H'flamers can go after the Grots and take out his objective takers meaning all he's got left will be the Nobz.

Ordnance is definitely the way to go IMO. You need to be denying as many of those saves as you can. If you get some hits with S8 Ordnance he only needs to roll a couple of 1's and then the Bikers will start falling. Hitting him with Strength 8 or higher in mass will quickly have him rolling leadership tests that no Ork player wants.

Use assassins neural shredder on nob bike squad, after psykers reduce them to LD4 will instadeath them with the shredder its str8 based on leadership. its a flamer no cover,
AP2 no FNP if you kill over half of them and they run on LD4 very likely they won't regroup warboss runs with them and
for 25% casaulties there ld 4 anyway meaning they run rally then sit there for a turn unless you hit them again with LD 4 and some shooting.

Are you seeing my point 700+pt unit down to 250pt unit leaving rest of your army to deal with other squad, maybe a unit can shoot them to bring under half if assassin doesn't get enough.

Mech and pie plates. Nob Bikers can't kill tanks reliably if they move, so you can use that to tank shock, block movement, and hem him into positions where your templates do the most damage. S8+ pie plates are your friends here.

Battlecannons and other Ordnance are good too. Doesn't deny the cover save, but denies the FNP and instant kills the 2W greenies. Plasma spam also still wounds on 2s and denies the FNP, or melta to heap instant death on top of that too, using CCS to make them reroll that cover save in both cases of course.

I really can't see it being that much an issue unless your own model restriction is part of the problem. Would be easier to help formulate a plan if we knew what you're fighting with.

I got 2 hellhounds which I guess I could use as banewolves. Otherwise, I'm gonna have to proxy some rhinos, which I prefer not to do.

Originally Posted by phr0z3n

If you wanna go up against Fast armies, use the good ol' tactic of counter-attacking. Use a shield blob of infantry to soak up their first assault and use the opportunity to lay in some blast templates once the Ork Nob bikers are done. So, a good formation would be 2 Inf Squads blobbed in front of 2 Demolishers with possible waves standing behind to tarpit even more.

A 50-men combined squad is 250+ pts and he'll probably tear through that in 2-3 player turns with the sheer number of attacks he has. And when he pulls up to within 1" of my mob, my big blasts won't be able to shoot him.

Originally Posted by lord borak

Got to agree with InqAffe on that one.
Another Tank you've got is the Hydra. Ok he still gets FNP, but they'll ignore turbo boosting and his armour. A squadron of 3 Hydras is no points at all and you can fit them into a balenced list.

Also spamming things like Melta and Ordinance to instant kill him. The shear amount of stuff you can throw at him will take him down eventually.

When all your shooting is done, Charge a squad of conscripts in there with a Commi Lord nearby (NOT in the squad) to hold them up for his turn. Then you can Burn him again.

While all thats going on, 2 Snetinels with H'flamers can go after the Grots and take out his objective takers meaning all he's got left will be the Nobz.

Unfortunately, I don't have any Hydras, however, I would prefer to use a standard russ over 2 hydras for the Instakill.

They're still tear through a 50-men conscript squad with Commi Lord nearby (unless he was in the squad itself).

I'm not too concerned with his gretchins. I got a lot of ranged weapons to take care of them.

Use assassins neural shredder on nob bike squad, after psykers reduce them to LD4 will instadeath them with the shredder its str8 based on leadership. its a flamer no cover,
AP2 no FNP if you kill over half of them and they run on LD4 very likely they won't regroup warboss runs with them and
for 25% casaulties there ld 4 anyway meaning they run rally then sit there for a turn unless you hit them again with LD 4 and some shooting.

Are you seeing my point 700+pt unit down to 250pt unit leaving rest of your army to deal with other squad, maybe a unit can shoot them to bring under half if assassin doesn't get enough.

I like it! That's something that might work...even if it's a 1-trick pony, but a good trick it is. Now if only I can get the callidus in by turn 2, otherwise he'll be assaulting me.

I see a lot of potentail with PBS's and Weaken Resolve. I will look into that.

Originally Posted by ==Me==

Mech and pie plates. Nob Bikers can't kill tanks reliably if they move, so you can use that to tank shock, block movement, and hem him into positions where your templates do the most damage. S8+ pie plates are your friends here.

Oh yes they can. Each Big Choppa is 4 S7 attacks on the charge and each Power Klaw 4 S9 on the charge. With 8-9 bikers + warboss, they'll take down the tanks with not much problem unless its a Land Raider or Monolith. Even easier if it's a squadron of tanks.

They're still tear through a 50-men conscript squad with Commi Lord nearby (unless he was in the squad itself).

They wont be able to tear through them in one round of combat though. 2 Yes but thats all you need. Charge him in your phase, he kills half (or more) his turn he kills the rest of you and then he's stuck around looking at your big guns again.

They wont be able to tear through them in one round of combat though. 2 Yes but thats all you need. Charge him in your phase, he kills half (or more) his turn he kills the rest of you and then he's stuck around looking at your big guns again.

The Assassin idea sounds pretty cool though

He doesn't need to. With almost 50 attacks on the charge (40 without), he'll probably kill 15-20 conscripts at a time. If the Commi Lord isn't part of the group, I'd need snake-eyes (1,1) to pass LD and not break, of which he'll have a decent chance to sweep (Furious Charge I4 vs conscripts I3). Then he'll consolidate as close to my units as possible, once again making blast weapons a risky option.